Applications - 69/262 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Dec

SwiftKey Flow Beta Now Available

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Back in late October, SwiftKey announced a new feature called Flow for its hyper-intelligent keyboard. SwiftKey Flow takes everything you (and I) love about SK, and combines it with gesture typing, like that of Swype, or the Android 4.2 stock keyboard. Then, just a few days ago, they debuted the newest feature that would be available in Flow - called Flow Through Space - which allows users to swipe through full sentences without having to lift their finger from the keyboard by sliding down to the spacebar after each word. Not only is that intuitive and brilliant, but I've been using Flow for the last few days, and it works pretty flawlessly.

Dec

Self-Checkout Service 'QThru' Comes To Android As The Company Gears Up For Its U.S. Rollout

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Have you heard of QThru? If not, welcome to the club - before tonight, I didn't even know it existed. Basically, it's a cool take on self-checkouts at brick-and-mortar stores. The idea is simple: carry your phone around, scanning barcodes of the stuff you intend on buying. Once you're finished, head over to the QThru kiosk and use it to scan the QR on your phone, essentially closing the transaction. All of your credit card info is stored within the QThru app on your device, so once you've scanned the QR, you're done. A worker at participating retailers would likely be hanging around to compare the cart's contents to the receipt, just to make sure you're not up to no good.

Dec

[New App] Root Transmission Lets You Root Other Android Devices Using Your Own Via OTG Cable

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Development, News

Is rooting phones a hassle for you? Do you want to root somebody else's phone (whether they're willing or not), but don't want to deal with that whole pesky "getting permission" part? (Or dealing with teaching them how to go about doing it?)

A new app over at XDA by wchill may have you covered. I say "may" because it's still in a very early beta stage, but the response so far from the community has been pretty positive.

Root Transmission requires three things: 1.) a rooted Android device with USB hosting capability, 2.) a USB OTG cable, 3.) a one-click rooting script for the device you're trying to root.

Dec

RealVNC's VNC Viewer App Is On Sale At Half-Price - $4.99

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, Apps/Games, Deals, News

I know, I know - there are tons of VNC viewer apps on the Play Store. Some of the good ones are even free. But if you use RealVNC, and you (or your workplace) demand an encrypted connection for remote access, this is the only app we're aware of that will allow you to connect from your Android device. RealVNC is highly popular, so we thought we'd point out this deal, which saves you five bucks over the ten it would otherwise run you.

It's also a pretty great VNC viewer all-around, and has managed to rack up a 4.6 star rating with over 1200 reviews on the Play Store - no small feat for any app.

Dec

Rhapsody Throws Its Hat Into The Song-Matching Ring, Launches The Aptly-Named Songmatch

Posted by David Ruddock in Applications, News

If you're looking for yet another song-matching app (really, a SoundHound / Shazam alternative), Rhapsody's got something you might be interested in - a new app called Songmatch.

Songmatch, thankfully, does not require a Rhapsody subscription, and is completely free. You can match songs against Rhapsody's library of 16 million tracks, get artist info, track listings, and more.

That may sound pretty basic at first glance, but it gets better if you're a Rhapsody subscriber. You can immediately launch playback of the song or the album it's on when a match is found, and Rhapsody creates a special Songmatch playlist in your account where every track you match is then saved.

Dec

Dropbox For Android Updated To v2.2.2, Finally Brings The Ability To Move Files And Folders

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Of all the services that I use on a daily basis, Dropbox is probably the one that I absolutely can't live without. I store nearly everything in it, use it to quickly (and automatically, thanks to FolderSync) transfer screenshots to my PCs, and easily share files with other AP team members, friends, and family. However, the fact that files and folders couldn't previously be moved from within the Android app has always been pretty annoying.

Today, the Dropbox team has updated the app to finally include the feature. Now you can easily move folders and files around within your Dropbox without ever having to turn to the computer.

Dec

Chameleon Launcher Is Coming To Phones - The Team Is Looking For 25 Alpha/Beta Testers To Help Work The Kinks Out

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Ever since Chameleon Launcher was released, users have been wanting to see a version designed for phones. Looks like that time is finally coming, as the Chameleon dev team has posted a call for 25 alpha/beta testers for the new project, requesting that they have specific phone models to test on:

HTC One X+
HTC One X
Samsung Galaxy Note® II
Samsung Galaxy Note™
Samsung Galaxy S3
Nexus 4
Galaxy Nexus
MOTOROLA RAZR HD LTE
LG OPTIMUS G
DROID DNA By HTC
MOTOROLA RAZR MAXX HD

It's pretty clear that they want to get this thing running on the current top dogs as quickly as possible - if you think you can provide valuable, well thought-out feedback, head to the source link to find out how to get in on the action.

Dec

'Slice Keyboard' Is A Multi-Touch Keyboard For Android Tablets, And It Will Break Your Brain

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

One of the biggest benefits of Android is, and always has been, the plethora of available software keyboards. Don't like stock? No problem - there's something out there that will make your typing experience suck less. But what works great on phones may not be so hot on a large-screen devices like a tablets, so there's basically a whole subset of keyboards - or at least keyboard layouts - in that arena.

Enter a newcomer to the tablet keyboard ring: Slice. This keyboard... well, it's insane. Just watch.

Unique? Definitely. Brain-melting? Without question. Practical? You can be the judge of that one.

Dec

What Tasker's UI Could Be, As Imagined By The Android Team [Video]

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Applications, News

Whenever the discussion of apps with bad UI comes up, Tasker - powerful as it may be - is always one of the first to be mentioned. Because, let's face it, it's pretty hideous. In the early days of Android, this wasn't much of an issue, as there was no standard UI. Or, you know, the Android Style Guide. In the past year or so, though, Google has really been pushing a the clean look of ICS+, Holo, and a consistent experience across applications.

Since Tasker is one of the most popular, yet not-so-easy-on-the-eyes applications out there, the Android team decided to demonstrate how great the app could look on this week's Android Design in Action, and the result is fantastic.

Dec

[New App] Official Etsy App Arrives On Android To Make Shopping For Artsy Trinkets Even Easier

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Applications, Apps/Games, News

Are you feeling particularly craft-y today? Then you will be interested to know that everyone's favorite handmade marketplace, Etsy has a new Android app. It's never been easier to browse for reasonably-priced knickknacks on your phone.

The app feels properly designed for Android. Holo elements like the action bar, tabs, and scrolling are all implemented correctly. Although, it doesn't feel like a cookie cutter Holo app either. Oh, speaking of... I wonder if I could find some Android cookie cutters on Etsy. If you decide to look for something obscure like that, the app's search interface works well.